Sam On Software

I’ve been suprised at how you can notice the effect of pushing content out there.

I spend a week creating articles, tutorials and other content, and a month later I can see the effect.

Admittedly there is a lot of work for a small reward but I guess the theory is that it’s cumulative over time.  The content you put out today is still bringing up qualified traffic in a years time.

However the work required to create content that will draw people in so they can see the benefits of your product does make one thing clear to me :

If you can make a product that is so remarkable or useful that people naturally want to tell everyone else about it, you are set.

People normally don’t tell other people about the furniture shops they go to, but Ikea customers do.  People usually don’t put stickers identifying their PC manufacturer on their car, but mac users do.

So far my guess as to how to create such a product is :

- It has to be different.
- It has to have a character/personality/value system behind it.

I guess it doesn’t even have to be good, it just has to be something people identify with.

I mean for example, PDF editors seem to be popular.  I wonder if you could create a product called “PedantPDF” designed specifically for people who care about spelling, grammar and details.  The top of the homepage could just say
“Details Matter.  Raising quality since 2010″.

Features could be added to check image quality or file size for possible improvements.

I mean, maybe that’s a bad idea, but maybe a core group of people who are proud of being picky would rally around it.

Just a made up example.

* It was deliberate

Ok it’s lame but I don’t care

Ok it’s lame but I don’t care

Real programmers often end up explaining stuff to the person who started off explaining it to them

Real programmers have written programs for imaginary hardware

Real programmers think that maybe one day the web will take off

Real programmers regard databases as ‘cheating’

Real programmers make their girlfriends compose shopping lists in RDF

Real programmers think the next big thing will be usenet

Real programmers have sold scripts for in excess of $1000 a line

Real programmers remember ‘No Hireing’ DHH because his indenting was not up to scratch

Real programmers have written programs for an operating system that less than 100 people use

Real programmers think SICP has too much fluff

Real programmers have both recieved and given death threats in comments

Real programmers sold at least one university assignment to a bulgarian they met on irc

Real programmers steal Steve Jobs’ cars’ license plate

Real programmers have proposed marriage based on code quality alone

Real programmers have joined billion row tables unnecessarily to irritate a DBA

Real programmers can often detect a sites PageRank by smell alone

Real programmers have considered ways of programming via musical instrument

Real programmers have requested the job title of “The Big Kahuna”

Real programmers were granted the title

Real programmers have telneted into an mmo

Real programmers used to whistle 1200 baud modem handshakes back in the day

Real programmers still talk about it

Real programmers still remember the bbs that Mel used to hang on

Real programmers have broken hardware with software

Real programmers have asked a programming question on a date

Real programmers profiled and optimized their first hello world program

Real programmers tried to get funding for Knuth.tv

- Infographics can be very viral.  People love infographics, I know I do.

-Post frequency / schedule matters a lot.  Posting every day can be very powerful.

Working for other people is like being part of a rowing team inside a ship.

You know you are contributing to the ships motion but you can’t control the ship, you can only control your oar.

Working for yourself is like standing on the bow of the ship looking out at the ocean.  You can make the ship go whereever you want but sometimes you scan the horizon and see nothing at all.  No land, no other boats.  Nothing to tell you which direction to take.

You wonder “am I going in the wrong direction, or am I going in the right direction I just haven’t gone far enough yet”.